Figure of speech that's upset mother, about father retiring (8)
I believe the answer is:
metaphor
'figure of speech' is the definition.
(metaphor is a kind of figure of speech)
'upset mother about father retiring' is the wordplay.
'upset' indicates an anagram.
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'father' becomes 'pa' (pa is a kind of father).
'retiring' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'pa' written backwards gives 'ap'.
'mother' with letters rearranged gives 'methor'.
'methor' placed around 'ap' is 'METAPHOR'.
'that's' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for metaphor that I've seen before include "Analogy" , "7/16 [FIGURE OF SPEECH]" , "Allegorical figure" , "Common figure of speech" , "Figure of speech for home trap" .)